LA Fight Club – 12/05/2015

LA Fight Club took place tonight at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles, CA.

I’ll be honest: There isn’t much that I can write about considering most of the fights ended early…and when I say early, I’m mean KO’s in the first round. I was not complaining!

First fight of the night was Joshua Franco vs. Leonardo Reyes. Reyes took fall. Franco won with a KO.

Up next was Emilio Sanchez vs. Juan Hernandez. Again, it was another first round KO: Sanchez took the win.

Much to fans excitement, we had Nick Arce vs. Ali Gonzalez up for the third bout. Arce supporters filled the Belasco Theater. This kis is a hometown hero in LA. Not surprising, as I remembered when I covered the Herrera vs. Lundy fight back in July, and Arce literally had an entire section dedicated to him.

This time, the fight lasted longer than one round.

Arce’s name was echoed throughout the venue as fans cheered on his name. Gonzalez’ supporters didn’t back down though; they were cheering on their fighter too.

Arce knockdown Gonzalez. Arce fans went nuts.

But, Gonzalez came back, landing a body shot catching Arce off-guard.

Fight quickly stops in round two. Gonzalez had taken a knee. The ref waved his hands. Arce took the TKO win.

Ivan “Striker” Delgado vs. Luis Lizarraga Jr. made each other look like punching bags; every time they hit each other, I couldn’t believe how the other was standing.

Delgado was dominant from the very beginning, however. Delgado started off with landing strong body shots.

We couldn’t count Lizarraga Jr. out, though. He too those hits and still fought back. While Delgado continued throwing and landing strong body and head shots, Lizarraga still stood strong.

For the first and only time of the night, the fight actually went all the way to six rounds.

As expected, Delgado had won by UD. All three judgs scored the fight at 60-54.

Oscar Negrete vs. Ernesto Guerrero ended early as well. Truthfully, there wasn’t as much action as the previous fights.

Obviously, Negrete was throwing more punches than Guerrero.

Guerrero fell to his knee on the third round. Although he got back up, the ref waved his hands, signaling the end of the fight.

Negrete with the TKO.

Finally, we had the main event: Christian “Chimpo” Gonzalez vs. Alejandro Ochoa.

There was prior controversy: Ochoa was actually three pounds over the contracted weight. The catchweight was 131 lbs. Ochoa came in weighing in at 134 lbs.

Ochoa was actally late to the weigh-in. I can only assume that he was trying to get rid of the extra pounds.

After the weigh-in, he was given two hours to continue to dehydrate. Ochoa came back and was 131.8 lbs. He was still overweight.

30 minutes later, he came back making weight at exactly 131 lbs.

But, did it affect his performance?

Spoiler alert: The fight ended in two rounds.

Gonzalez started off strong. Ochoa looked slow, but managed to make some sort of comeback with combos near the end of the first round.

But, just as quickly as the fight started, it ended: Gonzalez had won by a KO.

LA Fight Clubs don’t hold post-fight press conferences. So, finding the fighters to interview was a little challenge. I was able to catch Ivan “Striker” Delgado and Oscar Negrete on my way out. Albeit, we were surrounded by loud exciting fans.

So, apologies for the awkward, up-close interviews. I was trying to make sure the fighters were heard.